Elon Musk’s X has said it would initiate legal action against Australia’s eSafety commissioner after being asked to take down a user’s offensive anti-trans post from its social media platform. 

On March 22, eSafety Commissioner Inman Grant issued X a notice to take down the post of a Canadian man Chris Elston.

The post objected to the appointment of trans activist and ACON’s Director of LGBTQ+ Community Health Teddy Cook to a World Health Organisation panel on health care for trans and gender diverse persons. The post that was widely shared misgendered Cook and used disparaging terms. 

Twenty-Four Hours To Take Down Post

In a statement, X said it was threatened with a fine and given 24 hours to take down the post. 

“Earlier this week, X was ordered by the Australian E-Safety Commissioner, subject to an approximately $800,000 AUD fine, to remove a user’s post,” X’s Global Government Affairs team said in a statement.

‘The post had criticized an individual appointed by the World Health Organization to serve as an expert on transgender issues. X is withholding the post in Australia in compliance with the order but intends to file a legal challenge to the order to protect its user’s right to free speech.” the statement said. 

Offensive Post

Under the Online Safety Act, there is a reporting scheme for adult cyber abuse, if a service provider fails to act on reports of being targeted online. 

Following a complaint by Cook, the eSafety Commissioner flagged Elston’s post saying that “an ordinary reasonable person in the position of the Complainant would regard the Material as being offensive.”

“This is because the material singles out the Complainant to personify the poster’s contempt for transgender identity as well as equating transgender identity with a psychiatric condition.”

According to the eSafety commissioner, the offending post “implicitly equates transgender identity with a psychiatric condition.”

“This statement is deliberately degrading and suggests that all transgender people – and in this case the complainant in particular – have something that is ‘wrong’ about their psychology owing to their gender identity.”

Last year, X (formerly Twitter) rolled back its protections for transgender persons. Twitter’s policy had previously prohibited “targeting others with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category. This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.” X removed the second line in April 2023.